Life After Rose
by Marie Lake
Summary: After Rose leaves the Academy, Lissa's left with one guardian: Eddie Castile. But what happens when she is forced to accept another guardian? Or when she finds out that this guardian is not only a Dashkov, but also happens to be shadow-kissed?
1. The Other Guardian

**Lissa's POV**

It must've been an hour after the sun had fallen below the horizon when I awoke. I was lying in bed with my head on Christian's chest, thoughts of the last few months swirling around in my mind. It had been a few months since Rose left the Academy, and I was just now starting to get over it.

With Rose gone and Dimitri a Strigoi, Eddie Castile, a friend of mine (who was also my guardian for his field experience), became my guardian. I was offered another guardian, since I am the last Dragomir and all, but I refused. Until they found someone as good as Rose, I'm just going to go along with one guardian.

It's not like I don't have Christian, too. When those Strigoi attacked the Academy all those months ago, he was a total bad ass. I have no doubt in my mind that he can keep me safe.

After my last school year ended, something changed in me. I decided that instead of going to live at the Royal Court and attend Lehigh like I had planned, I was going to stay at the Academy for a little while longer. Kind of as a free spirit, like Adrian has been. Well, I guess I shouldn't say had been because he was still at the Academy too. He'd decided that if I wasn't going to live at the Royal Court, then there was no real sense in him going either. After all, we were still trying to study spirit together.

It felt like so much had changed in so little time here at the Academy. Nothing was the same after the Strigoi attack. Those who had been involved in the _Mână_ were punished severely and were now forced back into their corms three hours before the regular curfew. Wards were also renewed every week, instead of every two weeks. The attack had given everyone a taste of what the real world would actually be like. It showed us that we weren't always safe at school.

Because of this, many parents made the choice to pluck their kids from St. Vlad's and send them to another school that they felt would be safer. But the truth was that nowhere was safe. The attack was a revolution in our world, because we'd never experienced anything like that. Over fifty Strigoi working together when even ten seemed impossible. After the attack, things seemed to be getting worse. The loss of Dimitri and Rose, one of the world's greatest guardians and one of the world's greatest soon-to-be guardians, was a tragedy to say the least. Especially for me.

Coming back to the present, I felt Christian stir beneath me. He groaned and yawned, stretching out his arms in front of him, and then wrapping them around me. I smiled and turned my head towards him.

"Morning," I murmured pleasantly.

"More like 'evening'," he replied with a chuckle, leaning forward to place a soft kiss on my lips.

I closed my eyes and chuckled too, happy that we could act like a normal couple in spite of all the craziness in the world.

I yawned and opened my eyes. "So, what's on the agenda for today?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Hmm…well, I don't know. Nothing?"

I gave him and sarcastic look. "Oh, you know what I mean." I raised myself off of his chest and sat up, looking around our room.

We'd been given an upgraded room, since we were no longer students. It was a lot like Adrian's actually, except maybe a little bigger since it was Christian's and mine. I think it's actually the biggest on campus, which is kind of cool, I guess. Our bed looked like it was bigger than king-sized and could probably fit five or six people on it comfortably; it was centered on the far wall away from the door in our room. Before I could study the rest of our room, I noticed Christian sitting up beside me.

As I looked at him, I immediately felt lucky that he was mine and that I was his. I stared at his face that I'd become so accustomed to. He stared back; his eyes perfect pools of ice. His jet black hair was untidy from sleep—and a few other things we'd done—but it still managed to look good.

Noticing my scrutinizing, he lifted his hand and stroked my cheek. "What's on your mind, Liss?"

I smiled. "You are."

He chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully. "Well, I already knew _that_."

"Well, then you know what's on my mind."

With that I slipped away from his hand and scooted off the bed, standing up. I stretched my arms and cracked my neck. I didn't feel like I'd slept that long, but I didn't think I could lie there any longer. Christian's question just brought up memories of Rose, and I really didn't want to start crying this early in the day.

I walked out of the bedroom and into our humongous bathroom—complete with steam shower, Jacuzzi, toilet (duh), and three sinks in a marble countertop. What we needed three sinks for I had no idea. I walked over to the first sink a stared at myself. My hair was pretty wild looking from last night, but I didn't care much. My jade green eyes seemed to pop out at me against my Moroi-pale skin, and I was grateful to see there were no shadows beneath them.

With a sigh, I reached for my hairbrush and tried to turn the messy tangle into the soft silky waterfall of hair that I was used to. The knots however, were putting up a very good fight; they just didn't seem to want to come out of my hair. I rolled my eyes and decided that a hot shower would probably put an end to them. I walked across the tile floor and out of the bathroom.

I wandered over to the bed, hopped on and crawled over to Christian, who apparently had lain down again. I settled myself on his right side, the silky blanket that covered the bed separating us, and rested my head on his pillow.

"Christian?" I murmured.

He didn't reply.

"I was going to take a shower, do you want to join me?" Again there was silence. I assumed that he had fallen asleep again. Oh well, he'd regret it later.

Smirking, I rolled off the bed and stood again, walked across the room and back into the bathroom. Since I was already naked I didn't have to go through the task of removing my clothes. I slide open the glass door to the shower and stepped inside, shutting the door as I went. I turned the shower on full blast. Though the temperature steaming hot, it didn't seem to bother me; it actually relaxed me. I turned the shower knob to the waterfall setting as I began to shampoo and condition my hair, taking extra time to eliminate every chance of there being tangles.

After a good scrub down, I shut the shower off deciding that I'd taken long enough. I slide open the now foggy glass door and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel as I did so. After drying off my body, I wrapped my hair up so it would dry and made my exit from the bathroom. Unfortunately, I did that a little too fast and slipped on the wet tile. It didn't hurt very much, but it sure didn't feel good.

"Ugh," I groaned from the floor, I was going to be wet again. I heard the TV on in the other room and I assumed that Christian was awake now and probably didn't hear me fall. I got up as quickly as I could manage.

Once off the tile, I walked back into the bedroom, past Christian—who was now sitting, fully dresses, on one of our couches and watching TV—and over to my closet. One of the perks of having an upgraded suite was definitely my walk-in closet. I felt like I was kind of in my own little world when I was in there.

It only took me a few moments to figure out what I was going to wear. I chose a cute little crème-colored dress that fell about three inches above my knees. It was spotted with yellow, turquoise and salmon colored flowers and I absolutely loved it, though I couldn't remember where I'd gotten it. I paired it with a pair of chic black peep-toe wedges. After sliding on some undergarments and my outfit, I walked out of my closet and shut the door.

Christian was there, right out side the door, and he caught me in his arms, pulling me close. We kissed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. We got so lost in the moment that I forgot that there was a towel on my head until I felt it slip off and fall to the floor.

I pulled away, looked down at the towel and laughed. "Oh, now look what you did!" I teased, releasing my arms from their position around Christian's neck.

He faked his shock. "What? _Me_? You were the one getting so into that kiss." He smirked as he said this and I grinned.

"If you say so." We laughed and broke apart, and I headed over to the bathroom again to brush my hair and put on some makeup. Just because Christian thought I was beautiful with and without makeup didn't mean everyone else did, and, after all, I was the Dragomir Princess.

I took only a few minutes to blow-dry my hair and then brush it smooth. And a few more minutes to make sure my makeup looked how it should: perfect. With that, I walked out of the bathroom and headed for the door. I paused to wait for my boyfriend.

"Are you coming?" I spun around to look at the room. He was watching TV again, but looked up as I spoke.

"What? Oh, um, yeah." He shut off the TV and cut off whatever the host on whatever game show he was watching was saying. With that, I opened the door and walked out, nearly running into Eddie—who was station right in from of the door—in the process.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, steadying myself. "I'm sorry, Eddie—I mean _Guardian_ Castile." The apology was meant to be serious, but I couldn't help teasing him.

Eddie grinned at me. "Well, if we're going to be going all formal, I suppose I should call you _Your Highness_ instead of Lissa."

I rolled my eyes. "Only if you deem it necessary." We both laughed at that and Eddie held up his wrist to check his watch mockingly.

"I was thinking you guys were never going to wake up. I might have had to bust in there to make sure you were still alive." He laughed again. "So, what're we doing today?"

Christian spoke up from behind me. "We're still working on that…but I think I need a feeder before we do anything."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, me too."

Eddie also nodded. "Alright, off we go then."

He let us pass in front of him so that he could still be close, but not have to glance back every few seconds to see if we were still there. The walk from our suite to the cafeteria was shorter than it used to be when we were students. The guest house was actually the second closest building to central campus. It was still about a five minute walk, but I don't think any of us minded.

Since it was a school day, the campus was pretty empty as we walked through, except for the occasional guardian that was patrolling the grounds. This is why it surprised me to see Adrian wandering around looking rather bored.

"Ahh, there you are, cousin." He sounded relieved, as if I could be the cure to his boredom. Since he was originally walking in the opposite direction we were, he had to turn to keep pace with us. "Heading off to the feeders this evening?"

"Yes, actually." I said, half-smiling. I kind of felt bad for Eddie, now that he had three of us to keep track of, but I was sure he didn't mind much. After all, it was his job. "Where were you heading?"

Adrian shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's so boring around here so I thought I might catch up with you and we could practice some more."

I felt Christian stiffen slightly at Adrian's words; he still kind of thought that Adrian was interested in me in a romantic sort of way. But it wasn't me he was after…

"Maybe after I get some food in my system," I joked. "I'm super tired."

He nodded, but didn't say anything else. I could tell that today he'd decided to stay sober, because he was definitely more calm than he usually was.

As we were arriving at the cafeteria, my stomach practically growling, a noticed something odd. It was just passing by, so I didn't get a good look at it; it was moving pretty fast. But I was pretty sure I saw a bright crimson crotch rocket that must have been doing at least fifty miles per hour drive through the entrance gates for the school, past our group of people, and towards where Kirova's office was.

I stopped walking.

"Did you guys see that?" I asked, eyes wide. I looked around at Eddie, Christian and Adrian as if they held the answers to the questions swirling around in my mind.

It was Eddie who answered. "Yeah," he said in a low voice. "I wonder who was on it though."

I nodded. "Me too. It was definitely _somebody _though. Do anyone at the school own anything like that?"

"Definitely not." Adrian stated in a matter-o-fact tone.

"Can we figure this out later?" Christian asked impatiently. He was always like that when he was hungry. "I want to get to the feeders. With any luck I'll get Alice again today." His tone seemed to brighten after that comment.

I sighed, but agreed and we set off again. Like the campus, the cafeteria was practically deserted, so it took no time at all to get a feeder. Unfortunately, Christian didn't get Alice like he wanted; I did. She was looking rather old today, even though she couldn't have been older than her sixties. I had a feeling that she was going to have to stop feeding some time soon though. Her skin was pale from all the blood loss, but still, her eyes brightened when she saw me.

"Why, Vasilisa, it's so nice to see you again." She sounded like she meant it. I smiled.

"It's nice to she you too, Alice." I settled myself in my chair next to her.

"Where's your guardian today?"

I'm sure I looked puzzled. I glanced over and saw Eddie standing by the entrance to Alice's cubicle. "Eddie's right there. He's my only guardian."

She raised an eyebrow. "No, no, no. I'm sure you have two. After all, you're a princess. You need proper protection."

I nodded. "Well maybe I'll get another guardian someday, but for now it's just Eddie."

With that, I bit into her neck, officially ending the rest of that conversations as she lost herself in the high of my bite.

I finished quickly since I didn't need that much, and I was a little surprised to see that Christian was already done and waiting for me at the door to the cafeteria. He probably hadn't stopped to make conversation with his feeder. I stopped next to him and we linked hands, smiling at each other in the happy couple way that we did.

"Where's Adrian?" I asked suddenly, looking around for him.

Christian shrugged as if he couldn't care less. "I don't know. He must've left while we were feeding."

"Oh," I said, disappointed. I was really looking forward to practicing spirit with him today. Oh well…

Just as we were leaving the feeding room, I noticed Alberta walking towards us, looking anxious.

"Princess, Kirova would like to have a word with you. Now."

I was shocked; I hardly ever talked to the Headmistress anymore.

"Um…" I stammered, not sure what to do. "Oh, yes, okay." I turned to Christian motioned for him to come too.

"Kirova requested that she see you alone." Alberta stated dryly. "Guardian Castile can accompany you, of course."

I did my best to hide my confusion, but agreed anyways and followed Alberta to Kirova's office. It wasn't a very long walk, but it felt dragged on for me because I didn't know what it was about. And I was really starting to hate surprises. While we were walking, my mind was automatically trying to prepare for the worst. What was wrong anyways?

We stopped rather abruptly, and I barely had the time to snap back to reality before we walked right into Kirova's office. It looked the same as it had when I was a student here, except now it was much less intimidating. As we entered the room, I was pretty shocked to see that Kirova was deep in conversation with a girl I didn't recognize. She was standing up, facing Kirova--which meant her back was turned to me--and the only thing I could see was that she had jet black hair and pale ivory skin. It wasn't the same kind of pale that I was, but it looked pretty pale nonetheless.

Their conversation cut off as we entered the room though. Kirova looked past the mystery girl and straight at me.

"Ahh, Vasilisa, how nice to see you." Funny, Alice had said almost the same thing.

I nodded, smiling politely. "Nice to see you too."

Kirova stepped out from behind her desk and motioned to the many chairs round her office. "Please, have a seat."

I nodded again and took a seat in the chair closest to me. Everyone else remained standing.

I crossed my legs and put my serious face on. "You wanted to see me?"

She nodded and smiled, looking genuinely pleased. "Yes, I did. You see Vasilisa--" I silently wished for her to stop calling me that. "--I have rather good news."

I waited.

Kirova cleared her throat before continuing. "It has come Queen Tatiana's attention that you declined having a second guardian when they were first being assigned."

I nodded. It was true. I told them that until they found someone as good as Rose, I would just have Eddie.

"Well, the Queen searched long and hard to find someone suitable to be your new guardian. And now we've finally found someone fitting." She gestured to the black-haired girl who I just realized was now turned around and looking at me.

I felt my jaw fall slack, but I didn't hurry to correct it. It wasn't enough that Kirova had just told me that I was assigned another guardian. No, to add on to that, I noticed something about the black-haired girl that we had in common we had exactly the same eyes. She looked almost like…

"Vasilisa, this is your new guardian: Addaline Dashkov."

I felt my eyes bulge. Dashkov. Like Victor Dashkov. Did that mean…I was related to this girl? But…I couldn't be!

She was a dhampir.


	2. Meet Addaline Dashkov

**Hey, Marie Lake here! Here's chapter two of Life After Rose. Please read and review, and if you have any ideas about something that you would like to happen next, feel free to let me know (: Enjoy!**

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"_Vasilisa, this is your new guardian: Addaline Dashkov."_

No. No, this couldn't be true. It just wasn't possible. I was extremely surprised that Eddie was able to keep quiet behind me. Several protests bubbled to my lips as I thought this phrase over and over, but I tried my best to hold my tongue.

It wasn't going to work. I looked up at Kirova in disbelief.

"No." I used my this-is-my-final-answer voice. Hopefully it would be enough.

Now Kirova was the one looking shocked. "B-but, Vasilisa--" Ugh, stop calling me that. "--Guardian Dashkov is one of the best guardians out there. She meets all of your expectations--"

"Except she isn't Rose." I gritted my teeth. I was upset now. Who was this girl anyways? And who was Kirova to say that she was as good as Rose?

"No," Kirova agreed, looking at Addaline and smiling. "But, you didn't say that you needed Rose. You said you needed someone _as good as _Rose and well, Her Majesty thinks that young Addaline here may be even better."

Addaline gave Kirova an obviously forced smile. She didn't look like she wanted to do this either. Either that, or Kirova's praise was embarrassing her.

"Permission to speak, Headmistress?" asked Addaline. "But I hardly think I'm _better_ than anyone. More experienced, maybe. But certainly not _better_."

Well, that was one thing. This girl didn't even look much older than I was. So, how much more experienced was she? I guess I would just have to find out.

"You were assigned to me by Queen Tatiana, is that correct?" I addressed her for the first time.

She turned to face me and I almost gasped. Now that I could see all of her, I saw that she was extraordinarily beautiful. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't like Rose--who was curvy and attractive in a sexy exotic way--but she was attractive in a statuesque way. Her jet black hair looked silky smooth and hung down to the middle of her back. It framed her face composed of thin eyebrows, long curved eyelashes that framed her jade eyes, high cheekbones, full pink lips, and a perfectly straight nose. Her completion looked smooth and clear; she didn't even have freckles. She was tall too, probably around five foot, six. She looked like an angel pulled out of a painting in a cathedral. I felt a sharp pang of jealousy against her.

Oblivious to my studying, she nodded and half-smiled. "That is correct." I could tell she was trying to be polite.

I closed my eyes and mashed my lips into a tight line. Maybe this would be good for me, to finally have two guardians. And it seemed like this one was especially good at what she did… Wait, what was I thinking? She was a Dashkov for crying out loud! Plus, if I accepted her, what would happen when Rose came back? I was replacing her!

As if she could read my mind, Addaline spoke up again. "Please don't think that I'm trying to replace your friend, Princess. I'm merely filling in for her while she is away."

Not replacing Rose? Well in that case…

I sighed and opened my eyes, focusing on my new guardian's face. "I'll accept you, then." I tried to muster up as much of a smile as I could; I liked the idea of her not replacing Rose.

Kirova clasped her hands together. "Wonderful! Her Majesty will be so pleased."

I nodded. "May I go now?" I have to go find Adrian.

"Oh?" said Kirova. "Oh, yes, of course!" She was beaming for some reason, like me having another guardian was the answer to her prayers. "It was very nice to see you again, Vasilisa."

I stood and smiled. "Yes, very nice to see you as well." With that I turned away from her and exchanged glances with Eddie. He apparently looked pleased that Addaline was going to be my other guardian. Then again, he was a boy.

"Oh, stop drooling," I said to him in a voice barely audible; I was sure he heard me though because he grinned.

He replied in the same kind of low voice that I had used. "It's not my fault she's pretty."

I rolled my eyes and walked out of the door, Eddie remained close and Addaline trailed behind us. It reminded me of when we were doing our field experience, how Eddie and Rose took turns doing close and far guard.

We walked for about a minute before I spoke up. "Hey, Eddie?"

"Yeah?"

I hoped I wouldn't sound rude. "Do you think you could take far guard? I want to get to know my know my new guardian a little."

This seemed to surprise him a little, but he agreed, and then left me to switch places with Addaline. She came up right beside me, like we were friends or something. It was a little weird knowing that this was the girl that was going to be guarding me now. This tall, beautiful girl that had apparently taken down loads of Strigoi. Hopefully she could answer all of the questions I was going to throw at her.

"So, you're a Dashkov, huh?" I tried to keep my tone polite and casual, even though I was burning with curiosity. I turned my head to look at her. Her eyes looked alert, but also like they were off seeing something that I couldn't. Like she was remembering something.

"I had a feeling you were going to ask about that." She half-smiled and her eyes flashed over to meet mine for a moment. "Naturally, you're probably curious about why and _how_ I am who I am."

I waited. She sighed.

"_That_, however, is a very long story." Her eyes looked like they were even farther away now. They took on kind of a foggy, glassy quality.

I decided that even though this was really none of my business, I wanted to hear her explanation. "I have some time."

Addaline chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you do." She sighed a contented sigh and looked around. "Let's just hope it takes us a while to get to where ever we're going."

I nodded, but said nothing. She stayed quiet for a few moments and I assumed she was trying to figure out how to begin.

"My mother's name is Vanessa Dashkov. You may recognize her as Victor's sister, you may not. She lost contact with her brother decades ago after some fight that they had. Anyways, so my mother is a royal Moroi, which is uncommon to say the least. Not that she's royal, because that's normal, I suppose, but the fact that my mother is a Moroi and my father was a dhampir."

She pause. I'm guessing she wanted me to take in what she had said. Her father _was_ a dhampir? Did that mean...

"His name was Gregory Solomon and he was assigned to be my mother's guardian. At first, he didn't like her very much. Even though she was very pretty, he found her very stubborn and even immature. She, however, thought that he was attractive, but was much too serious and lacked a good sense of humor. So, my parents were opposites, to say the least. I'm not exactly sure what happened to change their minds; I was much too young for them to tell me together. But my mom's mentioned once or twice about how he saved her life from a Strigoi, and I guess they just fell in love after that.

"They were got themselves in a bit of trouble at that point. Typically, dhampirs didn't stay with Moroi. It just wasn't really something that happened. So you can imagine how people felt when they decided to get married. Apparently, my father's father had had enough Dashkov blood in him so that my parents kid would also have the Dashkov name."

I couldn't help but interrupt.

"How did the rest of your family feel about that? About...a dhampir having your name?" I prayed that I didn't sound rude.

"Well, that comes on later in the story actually." She caught my eye and gave me a dry smile. "Anyways, they got married and had me, their only child. My mother decided that Addaline Marie would be my name, after her great-grandmother or something; I prefer people to call me Addy. And I guess that's it." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Wow, that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would."

"You edited," I accused.

She shrugged. "Not much, really. I took out most of the boring details."

"You never answered my question, though." I noticed. "How did your family feel about you?"

Silence followed that. The only sound coming from our footsteps. I had a feeling that I'd struck a nerve.

Finally, she sighed. "They were against me in the beginning," she admitted, but honestly didn't sound bothered. "They didn't like the idea that it was possible for me to one day be the oldest Dashkov and have to accept the title of 'Princess'. As it is, my mother is currently the Dashkov princess, with Victor in prison and all." She paused. "They came around eventually though. My father was forced to become a Strigoi when I was five years old and by the time I was seven, I was already mature enough for me to decide what I wanted to do: I wanted to become a guardian. So I began my training then, staying at home to learn rather than attending a school. When I was eight, my mother re-married Nicholas Voda, a fellow royal Moroi. They had my little sister Andromeda in the same year. My sister showed much potential, even as an infant and I told my parents that when the time came for me to accept the princess title for the Dashkov family, I would decline and pass it on to my sister. My other family members seemed to like me better after that."

But I had a hard time understanding this. "But..._why_? Why wouldn't you want to become the next Dashkov princess? That would start a whole revolution of royal dhampirs!"

Addy chuckled at this. "That's kind of why I didn't want to do it. I don't know why, but it just didn't seem right to me. Don't get me wrong, I don't really approve of dhampirs just having to serve Moroi their whole lives. the whole _'They come first'_ thing just didn't seem right to me, but I wasn't in any place to question the system. Technically speaking, I didn't even have to become a guardian if I didn't want to...but I did. I wanted to protect people against the kind of things that took my father away from me." Her voice broke and I saw her grit her teeth as if she was trying not to cry.

"You're very brave." I told her, actually meaning what I said.

She smiled. "Yes, I suppose so."

I wanted to ask her more. Like what had happened to her father, but that was really none of my business. She could tell me when she wanted to.

We were back at my room now, and I hadn't even realized that was where I had been heading. I reached for the doorknob and opened the door without really seeing what was in front of me. I imagined that my own eyes took on that dream-like, far away look that Addy had had earlier. I was too caught up in everything that she'd told me, that I found myself picturing what her life must've been like growing up in her home. What she must've gone through. Where I'd lost my parents to a car crash, she'd lost her father because he'd been taken from her and made into something terrible. Her father had had a fate worse than death.

As I walked into my room, I was a bit surprised to see both Christian and Adrian sitting on one of our couches, watching TV. They both looked up when I walked in and Christian said, "What did the queen want?" at the same time Adrian asked, "Who's your friend?" They both stood up, Christian walked over to me and Adrian walked over to Addy.

"Well, hello." He said in a polite but interested tone. He was, no doubt, marveling at her beauty the same way Eddie had. He grabbed her hand and pulled it up to his mouth, kissing it softly. "And who are we, exactly?"

Addy rolled her eyes. "We've met, Adrian." Her answer caught me off guard.

Adrian seemed surprised too, since his eyes widened a little. "Have we now?"

She nodded. "Yes. It's me, Adrian. Addy. Addy Dashkov."

He continued to look puzzled for a minute or so, but I could see the wheels turning in his head. I could see that he was piecing it all together. Then he gasped. "_Addy? _No way! I haven't seen you since we were kids!"

Addy grinned and the two hugged, surprising the rest of us in the room even more.

"Wait a second," Christian said, looking around the room from me to Adrian to Addy to Eddie. "What's going on here, Liss? Who is this girl?"

Adrian answered for me. "_This _is Addaline Dashkov." He was grinning now too.

Christian rolled his eyes. "Well, duh. I figured that out myself. I mean, what is she doing here?"

"Yeah..." Adrian agreed. "What are you doing here?"

She answered before I could. "I've been assigned to be Lissa's new guardian."

The whole air in the room shifted and became something much more uncomfortable. We all fell silent and weren't sure what to say to follow that.

Finally, Adrian broke the silence, and he didn't sound very happy. "_What?_"

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**Hope you enjoyed this chapter and more is to come soon (: Please review.**


	3. Out of the Shadows

**Unfortunately, I do not own Lissa. Or Christian. Or Adrian. Or Eddie. Or any part of the Vampire Academy series.**

**I do, however, own Addy, Andy, Vanessa and any other character i choose to make up during the course of this story.**

**Anyways, here's the new chapter of Life After Rose (: Enjoy!**

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My eyebrows shot up towards my hairline when I saw it was Adrian freaking out. I actually wasn't thinking anyone would freak out about this news, besides myself of course, but boy did Adrian look upset. It made even less sense considering the fact that he and Addy seemed to be such good childhood friends. Addy seemed surprised too, but after my freak out earlier, I was sure she could handle it.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, confusion coloring her tone.

Adrian snorted. "What's wrong? _What's wrong? _You're Lissa's guardian, that's what's wrong!"

I was pretty sure that statement was like a slap across the face to Addy, but she didn't show it.

"Yes," she said with a nod. "I am. Do you have a problem with that, Adrian?"

"You couldn't tell?" he asked sounding incredulous.

Her face hardened and she folded her arms across her chest. I suddenly wanted to be out of the room; I wondered if that was hoe people were feeling when I threw my little temper tantrum.

"Look," she said, sounding rather cross. "I don't know what your problem is with me being Lissa's guardian--because you didn't really seemed upset to see me a second ago--but I was assigned to her by Tatiana and you're just going to have to deal with it." She put on a face that I could only describe as a that's-the-end-of-this-conversation face.

I was kind of surprised that Addy called Tatiana by her first name, since most dhampirs weren't on a first name basis with her. Then again, Addy wasn't most dhampirs.

Apparently Adrian was not going to let it go. "Like hell I will," he muttered.

Addy's eyes narrowed. "What the hell is wrong--" She stopped. I could see that she finally figured it out and I prayed she would tell me because I had no idea. "You think I'm replacing Rose," she breathed, her face softening.

_Of course! _

I thought. It was so obvious! I mean that was the same reason I had been upset about accepting Addy as a guardian. And since Adrian had really liked Rose, it made sense that he didn't want her to be replaced either.

He looked taken aback. "Aren't you?"

Addy sighed and shook her head. "Not at all. I'm filling in for a while until…until Rose gets back. Then I'm going back to guarding Andy."

Andy? Who was that? Her boyfriend?

Adrian looked immensely relieved, and then confused again. "Wait, you stopped guarding Andy to guard Lissa?"

She nodded, a glint of sadness in her eyes. "Tatiana asked me to guard Lissa, so I couldn't refuse. It doesn't bother me though; I know she's in good hands while I'm not with her. She's actually here at the Academy, for the time being."

"Oh." he said simply, obviously not sure what to say to that.

I didn't either, but I was a little surprised to hear that not only was Andy a girl--which eliminated the possibility of her being Addy's boyfriend--but she was also here at the Academy.

"Who is she?" Christian asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him. But he was ignored so I figured that this was something we didn't need to know yet.

"Well then," Adrian announced. "Now that we've gotten past this little bump in the road, shall we start working, Lissa?" His eyes shifted from Addy to me, and I simply nodded.

With that we began our work. Eddie and Addy took their positions in the room; Addy stood in front of the door and Eddie stood by one of the windows, this way they both had a good view of the room. I wanted to tell them that they were more than welcome to just sit down and relax, but they seemed to keen on doing their jobs that I just left them alone. Christian flopped down on the couch and resumed watching whatever TV show he was watching before I came into the room. Then Adrian and I went over to one of the windowsills that I had placed dead or dying plants on, since he was still trying to learn how to heal better.

"Okay," I told him once we were in front of the sill. "Try it."

He nodded then immediately focused on the plant. This must've been why he had been so sober when I saw him. He gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes as he tried to make the little brown plant become green again. Finally, after minutes of waiting, he reached out and touched it. Life shot through the plant: the stem and leaves turned green, the plant grew to about a foot tall, and it sprouted two magnificent red roses.

I applauded him. "That was great! I can tell you're getting a lot better."

Adrian shrugged. "Yeah, but I still have to _really_ focus. You can just…do it."

I laughed softly. "That's because I've been doing it longer, probably. You'll get it in time but for now, that was great." I beamed at him in the way a proud teacher might beam at her student. "And now, we have to work on something that you can do and I can't."

"Oh, wouldn't that be, um, everything?" he laughed.

I laughed too, but mock punched him. "Hey, I'm trying! Give me a break."

"I know, I know." He said with a grin. "Well what do you want to work on exactly? Auras or dreams?"

"Well," I pondered. "Considering the fact that I can't really fall asleep on cue, maybe we should try auras first." I had always liked the idea of seeing them anyways.

"Alright," he nodded over to the bed. "You should probably sit down though. I don't know how the magic with affect you."

I didn't say anything to that and just took a seat on the bed. I didn't like how he told me to do so though. It was like he was warning me that the auras would do something strange to me. I hoped it wouldn't hurt…

Adrian sat down next to me, snapping me out of my imagination. "Okay," he muttered. "Try."

I lifted an eyebrow and just stared at him, puzzled. Did he expect me to actually know what to do if he hadn't told me? I decided to ask him. "How?"

He pursed his lips and focused on me. Well, actually he was focusing right beside me and, I assumed, on my aura. "You're gold today." He murmured, switched his gaze back to my face. He sighed. "I'm not sure _how_, exactly, but I think I have a general idea."

I waited.

"I need you to focus, Lissa." He instructed me. "Look right beside me so you aren't actually looking at me and focus."

"Focus on what?" I asked as I stared beside him. I tried to focus on the air rather than on the bed frame that was behind him.

He shook his head. "Just focus." I assumed he didn't know what to tell me to focus on. Either way, I stared and stared at that little spot of air beside him, waiting for some kind of color to appear.

It was like trying to stop time. No matter how hard I focused, nothing was happening. No color, no light, no feel of magic welling up inside of me. There was simple nothing. I gritted my teeth as Adrian had when we were working on the plants, maybe that would help me.

"Nothing's happening." I said through my teeth.

"Shhh," he said. "It will, just focus."

So I did. I tried to re-focus my thoughts on auras. On colors. On light. On magic. On anything, really. Still, nothing seemed to work. I felt a sharp twinge of envy when I realized that I was probably taking more time to learn auras than Adrian had to learn healing. It was shallow of me, but it made me focus even harder, if that was possible.

Finally, after an eternity of waiting, I felt something. It wasn't the warm and happy feeling I got when I used my magic to heal people. On the contrary, this magic was rather cold and confusing. It was like nothing I've ever felt before. The feeling engulfed me and I lost my own feelings in the brief search to find his. Suddenly, they all came at me at once. All of the things that Adrian was feeling: surprise and happiness from seeing Addy, loneliness and sadness from Rose being gone, anger and hatred from being sober, and confusion and wonder at the expression on my face as he saw me take them all in. I then felt something new, something sharp, and something painful. With that last feeling, everything went black.

* * *

I don't know how long I was unconscious for, but it probably wasn't long. Actually, I guess unconscious was probably the wrong word for was I was. In fact, I was very conscious, but I just wasn't awake. I heard the voices filled with worry, panic and concern around me as I tried to find my way back to reality, but trying to wake up again was like trying to swim up from the bottom of a pool with weights attached to your legs.

"What happened to her?" Christian exclaimed. I could feel his hand on me, feeling my forehead and such.

"I don't know." Adrian said, sounding worried. "She was doing so well, I think. I mean, I thought, for a moment, that I could sense her…" he trailed off.

"What do you mean 'sense her'?" Addy wondered. She didn't sound panicked or worried like the rest of them. In fact, she sounded rather bemused.

"Well," Adrian said, no doubt having a hard time putting it into words. "I was teaching her how to see auras. Remember how I told you about them when we were kids?" There was no answer so I assumed that she nodded. "Well I was teaching her how to see them too, and…I don't know. At first there was nothing, I didn't feel anything and I know she didn't. But then…it was the strangest thing, before she blacked out, I felt like we were sharing my emotions. Like I could sense that she had been doing it."

"Oh." She said, sounding thoughtful.

"Okay, can we worry about this whole freaky-spirit thing later and for now worry about Lissa?" Christian was starting to sound angry.

"Well, considering the fact that Lissa is a spirit user, the two are kind of connected." Adrian said sarcastically.

"Not the time." Eddie said, speaking up for the first time.

I tried to block them out and focus on waking myself up. This was hard to do considering the fact that my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. Slowly though, ever so slowly, I was able to open my eyes and take in my surroundings. I was lying on the bed and Adrian, Addy, Eddie and Christian were all standing around me. It appeared that Adrian and Christian were having an argument and Eddie was trying to break them up, so the only person actually looking at me was Addy. She smiled.

"Welcome back," she said. It sounded like a funny thing to say to me just then.

The boys stopped their fighting immediately and looked over at me, relief flooding their features.

"Liss!" Christian exclaimed, yanking me up into a sitting position and throwing his arms around me. Well at least I knew how worried he was.

"How do you feel?" Adrian asked, looking thoughtful.

Christian released me and pulled back to look at my face. It took me a moment, but I was finally able to retrieve my own feelings again. Before I knew it, I was beaming.

"I feel…amazing," I told them, inspiring some very bewildered looks. "I mean, I did it, didn't I?"

Adrian grinned. "From what I saw _and_ what I felt, I can saw that you did."

It seemed that my smile got even bigger; I was thrilled. "Can I try again?" My answer was a chorus of "No!" from everyone, but Adrian. I pouted.

"Maybe you should cool of for a while, Liss." Said Eddie, who still looked panicked.

I shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

To my surprise, Addy laughed. Everyone's eyes shifted from me to her.

"What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You laughed?" Eddie replied; it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Well, yeah, I thought it was funny." We all just stared at her. "I thought it was funny how eager you are to learn a new thing." She shrugged.

I smiled at her and she smiled back. All the eyes turned back to me, except Adrian's.

"You're sure you're okay, Liss?" asked Christian, he still looked rather worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, hoping that this would be the last time they asked me this.

My answer seemed to reassure Eddie and Christian, and they returned to where they were before my blackout. Adrian and Addy stayed by me, but I noticed that they weren't even looking at me; they were staring at each other. Adrian looked positively mystified as though he was just now noticing how beautiful Addy was. But that wasn't what he was marveling at. Just like when he was staring at my aura, I saw him staring right beside her and what he saw must've surprised him.

"You're shadow-kissed," he breathed.

I gasped and Addy looked taken aback. She probably didn't know what those words meant.

"I-I'm what?"

"Shadow-kissed," he repeated slowly.

"Shadow-kissed?"

"Shadow-kissed."

"What does that mean?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"It means you've died and come back to life." I supplied, sounding awed.

Her eyes widened. "B-but…how is that…_possible_?"

Adrian and I exchanged glances. Just as I was about to ask her if she knew someone who was a spirit-user, Adrian spoke up. "Has Andy specialized yet?"

She bit her lip. "Well…I'm not sure about that one. I mean…according to our parents she hasn't specialized, but…"

"But?" He pressed.

"But I have a theory."

We waited.

"I went to Victor's trial months ago. You probably didn't see me, because I didn't really want to be seen. I was the only one in my family that showed up. Anyways, when I heard Lissa and Victor testifying…I heard them talking about…healing. And about how healing was apart of the fifth element Spirit." She paused and locked eyes with Adrian. "Andy can heal."

"So you think she's a Spirit user?" I asked, thoroughly interested.

"Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't have any other explanation." She was talking very quietly now, almost like she was afraid of what she was saying.

"When did you…need her to heal you?" asked Adrian. I was sure that he was avoiding saying _die_.

She looked up at the ceiling and her eyes took on that far-away look again. "About eight years ago now, I believe."

"What happened?" I inquired.

She looked at me, a sad smile on her lips. "We have a little pond behind our house. When I was little, we used to skate on it in the winter, but it was too dangerous to swim in because of all the seaweed." She paused. "It was very deep in the middle of the pond, and that's where the most weeds were. Despite all my mother's warnings, one day when Andy and I were skating…I went out into the middle…and the ice broke."

I gasped, horrorstruck.

"I fell in and the seaweeds caught my feet as I tried to kick my way out. I hadn't learned to swim before that because I didn't really like the water. I don't really think it would've helped. I…I don't remember anything after that. Well, not clearly anyways. I do remember waking up though. Andy must've pulled me out somehow, because she was leaning over me when I opened my eyes." She fell silent and I just stared at her. So was Andy a nickname for Andromeda? Did that mean it was her sister that was the Spirit user?

Adrian looked own at the floor. "I remember that," he murmured. "I was over at your house that day, but I said that I didn't want to go skating because it was too cold, but really it was because I couldn't swim." He looked ashamed. Addy placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Are you…bonded to Andy now?" I whispered.

She pursed her lips. "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"Are you bonded?" I repeated. "Rose is bonded to me, she's shadow-kissed too. She can like get inside my mind and see things through my eyes. Can you do that?"

Pause.

"Yes, I can."

Another pause.

"Can I meet her?"

She looked shocked. "What?"

"Can I meet your sister?" I was excited now. And eager to learn what Andy was capable of.

"Wha? I-I…I supposed that would be…okay." It didn't sound that way. It sounded like she didn't really want anyone to go interrogate her little sister. Then she sounded a little stronger. "Yeah, I think she'd like that actually."

I was beaming again and even Adrian looked interested, his remorse forgotten for now.

"Let's go."

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter of Life After Rose (: More to come soon. Please review!**


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